In February of 2007, longtime friend / collaborator / painter Sandy Spreitz introduced an idea to me that I really loved. He offered to paint 2 paintings for me, with a total of 4 elemental subjects, and asked for me to write music for the paintings. The first painting was to represent the elements "earth" and "air", the second "water" and "fire". And, while Mr. Spreitz painted his paintings, he promised to listen to music by mystified.

Mr. Spreitz allowed me a special sneak peak at the 2 paintings while they were in the works. I paid special attention to his process of layering, of coloring, of brushstrokes, of textures. To me the paintings themselves are and will remain better than my accompanying music, but I hope you will at least find the music to be interesting.

The four pieces were created, incidentally, using layers of found sounds from my apartment in Saint Louis and from my shortwave radio.


This audio is part of the collection: Treetrunk
It also belongs to collection: Netlabels

Artist/Composer: Thomas Park
Date: 2007-03-07
Keywords: ambient; painting; phonography; soundscape

Creative Commons license: Attribution 3.0

Notes

Very special thanks to Sandy Spreitz for the paintings-- www.sandystudio.com .

Also-- don't miss the music video showing the WIPs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgRxawBjOAw

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Reviewer: graue - - January 17, 2008
Subject: Excellent phonography
I've been listening to tons of mystified lately, though it's just a small dent in his prolific catalog. So far though, for what that's worth, this is my favorite work.

Beautiful textures. A spot-on description of the four classical elements in sound. As you'd expect, "Earth" is low and rumbly, "Air" more open, sweepy, "Water" smooth, and "Fire", the loudest of the four, is almost sharp enough to burn (while remaining ambient in nature).

To those unfamiliar with mystified or this kind of music, I have to warn you that you may not get it at first. I listened to some mystified 3 years ago (not sure which release), and I guess I wasn't ready for it, because it just seemed weird and alienating. But unlike that release, "Audio Paintings" itself is fairly approachable. If it doesn't grab you, well, fine... Not all music has to grab you. Put it on in the background and drift away. (I may be preaching to the choir, given the kind of people who even know this exists. Oh well.)

I'd differ with Thomas's statement that the paintings are better than the music. Does that even make sense? The paintings and music are both great: They complement each other perfectly.

Anyway, highly recommended. Well worth the download, would be worth paying for if there were a way to do so!

Reviewer: Phil Arthur - - September 17, 2007
Subject: Mystified is great
I love mystified!

Reviewer: Silver Fox - - March 7, 2007
Subject: if you love something,
set it free, if it comes back....